Utah Jazz reserves look great, but starters have work to do

The Utah Jazz may be off to a 4-0 start in preseason, but that’s come largely thanks to their reserves while the starters have struggled.

The Utah Jazz had their second to last preseason rehearsal on Sunday night as they visited the Portland Trail Blazers. And although the final score looked nice – Utah won by a score of 123-112 – the way they got there wasn’t exactly so.

In the first three quarters while Utah’s main rotation was up against Portland’s main rotation, the Jazz were thoroughly outplayed. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were pretty much allowed to score at will. The former went 9-of-11 from the field and 4-of-5 from deep while the latter went 8-of-13 from the field and 3-of-6 from the perimeter to finish with 23 and 21 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, Jusuf Nurkic was an absolute beast, looking more stifling on defense than even the Stifle Tower Rudy Gobert himself. Nurkic posted five blocks while also scoring 20 points on an incredibly efficient 8-of-9 from the field which also included a pair of made threes. All of Portland’s starting lineup was in the positives in terms of plus/minus, with Lillard, McCollum and Nurkic going plus-22, plus-18 and plus-15, respectively.

Those are impressive marks. And unfortunately were polar opposite from Utah’s starters. Not only did the Jazz defense look about as lackluster as we’ve seen, but their shot selection and overall performance on offense was poor as well. For that very reason, Donovan Mitchell was minus-10, Rudy Gobert was minus-20 and Ricky Rubio was minus-21. Yikes.

It was somewhat reminiscent of some of Utah’s early woes last season where their starters simply couldn’t get in sync. Luckily, in Sunday’s bout, as my J-Notes colleague Zack Padmore mentioned earlier today, the Jazz bench was able to step up big time to will the squad to victory.

However, as teams rely more on their true rotation as the regular season gets underway, the Jazz are going to have to find a way to get out of their funk. Having good depth is a huge plus, but it can only get you so far once the games truly start to matter. At the end of the day, the Jazz starters are going to have to step up or else they’re in for a long and troubling season.

Because Utah’s bout against the Trail Blazers was hardly the first time such a discrepancy between the bench and starters has occurred. In fact, it’s largely been a theme throughout preseason. In the contest against both the Toronto Raptors and Adelaide 36ers, the Jazz suffered through similar issues.

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Utah was thoroughly outplayed by the Raptors in the first half, particularly in the second quarter. Luckily, once Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry sat out for the remainder of the game, the Jazz were able to come back to win. Had that not been the case, though, Utah likely wouldn’t have come out on top considering how poorly they started.

Against Adelaide, despite facing lackluster competition, the Jazz got off to a putrid start. Sure, Rudy Gobert didn’t play which clearly set them back, but it was an ugly start to a game that saw some poor marks from the starting group. Ricky Rubio went just 2-of-7 while Joe Ingles was 0-of-4 and Jae Crowder, who started in place of Rudy Gobert with Derrick Favors sliding to center, finished 0-of-7.

Fortunately, much like was the case against Portland, the Jazz were bailed out by solid play from the likes of Georges Niang (5-of-7, 12 points), Ekpe Udoh (5-of-7, 10 points), Grayson Allen (6-of-8, 16 points) and Alec Burks (6-of-11, 16 points). Again, it’s great to see those guys contribute. And as a side note, I truly think Niang deserves playing time once the real season gets underway.

But at the end of the day, the Jazz have to get more out of their main guys. The slow starts, poor shot selection and utter disarray on both ends of the court isn’t going to get them far.

I know it’s just preseason, but as a Jazz fan, I’m feeling a bit anxious about how the season is going to start based on what we’ve seen thus far. Luckily, the Jazz have one more preseason game remaining on October 11th against the Sacramento Kings in which they can attempt to iron things out and get themselves prepared for when the games really start to count.

Between the brilliance of head coach Quin Snyder, the determination of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, and the typical reliability of steady guys such as Derrick Favors and Joe Ingles, I’m optimistic that we’ll see a much more buttoned-up Jazz squad beginning with the regular season debut on October 17th. However, if preseason has taught us anything so far, it’s that the Jazz have some work to do.

We knew heading into this season that depth would be a blessing, but we were also counting on cohesion, chemistry, unyielding defense and an improved and more efficient offense all being present and important for the Jazz. Unfortunately, though, thus far none of those, besides the aforementioned depth, have been present.

This is no time to panic just yet, but it is a reason for angst and concern. Let’s all cross our fingers that the Jazz can turn things around in Thursday’s preseason finale and then be ready to go the following week. The reserves clearly have it figured out. But it’s time for the starters to follow suit and step up as well.

The Utah Jazz’s 2018-19 season depends on it.